Evidently the two powerhouse toy companies have a very different idea of what the future is going to hold:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/15/hasbro-and-mattel-have-very-different-visions-of-the-future.html

Specifically, Mattel seems pretty confident that customers are totally fine with the recent price hikes, and they'll just keep buying toys, because that's what toys cost now.

Hasbro is expecting sales to take a hit, because customers who have been sitting at home playing Monopoly and Clue for the last two years are going to start spending money to go on actual vacation to actual places that aren't their actual living room.

I honestly think it could go either way. It's funny, though, that during the pandemic, Hasbro was all, "Yeah, toy sales are great! Board games! People love the board games! Wahoo!" and now they're all, "Wait, what do we do when people get tired of board games?!"

Zob (always been fond of Connect Four, to be honest)

On Wednesday, February 16, 2022 at 7:51:18 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
> Evidently the two powerhouse toy companies have a very different idea of what the future is going to hold:
>
> https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/15/hasbro-and-mattel-have-very-different-visions-of-the-future.html
>
> Specifically, Mattel seems pretty confident that customers are totally fine with the recent price hikes, and they'll just keep buying toys, because that's what toys cost now.
>
> Hasbro is expecting sales to take a hit, because customers who have been sitting at home playing Monopoly and Clue for the last two years are going to start spending money to go on actual vacation to actual places that aren't their actual living room.
>
> I honestly think it could go either way. It's funny, though, that during the pandemic, Hasbro was all, "Yeah, toy sales are great! Board games! People love the board games! Wahoo!" and now they're all, "Wait, what do we do when people get tired of board games?!"
>
>
> Zob (always been fond of Connect Four, to be honest)
Both companies seem to be coming from different directions, with Mattel saying it's brands, like Barbie, have seen a massive popularity spike, while Hasbro is lamenting the Transformers film delays and talking about it's loss of the Disney Princesses. They still have Star Wars and Marvel, so they still have plenty of Disney. Hasbro is still ripe with distribution problems now, so they should be optimistic that even at higher prices stores cannot restock fast enough. Hasbro is making their money,

At this point I'm surprised Disney didn't buy a toy company just to make all of their toys in-house by now. They might buy Hasbro out of spite for the Star Wars and Marvel, or they cold just go after Jazwares or Spinmaster and watch Hasbro despair at losing more licenses to lesser brands.

I am excited to read that a Rock ‘Em Sock ’Em Robots movie is a possibility. Wasn't there a Hugh Jackman movie with fighting robots that had a toyline somewhat recently? All I am saying is give robot melee a chance. Transformers has too much lasers.

On Thursday, February 17, 2022 at 7:42:17 AM UTC-7, Ob1k...@att.net wrote:

> At this point I'm surprised Disney didn't buy a toy company just to make all of their toys in-house by now.

I think the main reason they don't do this is because they make a lot of money from toy makers who pay for the licensing rights.

Zob (brought home about 50 boxes today)